Unsettling
by Kay Willow
Summary: Saix went hunting with the new recruit; he was good, and could become the best, someday. If Saix can just figure out how to pry him out from under the menacing cloak of Axel... //Saix Roxas//


**.unsettling.**

.

Between the raindrops they hunt like wolves; silent, swift, deliberate. It surprised him a little. He had always seen the boy as empty, as absent of anything -- a key, after all, is by itself nothing, and the Superior's hand was to guide him -- but there was a predator in him, one that moved through dark and cut through flesh with an appealing grace.

They both had their hoods up to protect them from the rain. It was getting harder and harder for Saix to remember that he despised the rounded smoothness of XIII's boyish face. Harder and harder to remember his resentment at how fast Roxas rose to favor and high esteem in the Superior's eyes, when Saix had worked so long and selflessly for that recognition.

Almost as if he began to think that XIII might have deserved that praise.

Softly, in a voice that did not carry, Saix noted, "You should be taught how to control the darkness. Even Heartless will bow to you."

XIII snorted, an equally soft sound. "You flatter the Heartless. I don't have that much use for them." He gestured sharply with a keyblade, and it glinted in the sparse light.

They'd been killing for hours and still the boy was quick to suggest violence. Saix's lips turned up with appreciation. With such dedication, with such skill, he had a new respect for the Superior's judgment that they would soon achieve their goal. "Nevertheless," he said, cool, "it is something you must learn, if we are to subvert worlds properly."

"Why?" They stopped, XIII turning to face him, shrouded all black with barely a glint of gem-blue beneath his hood. "I don't need to use Heartless to consume worlds. I don't even need to touch those connected to its heart."

"Then you're doing it wrong," Saix began, but the words stopped as XIII thrust out the keyblade again in explanation. A thrill of shock went down his spine, something he hadn't felt in years; he straightened thoughtfully. Creative, too, when it came to his missions. A model Nobody. The ideal.

And untouchable.

XIII turned again, the keyblade returning to his side. "I suppose I shouldn't turn down the opportunity to learn," he added, almost a concession.

"Then I will teach you," Saix said generously. "This time, tomorrow."

"No good. I'm meeting VIII at the skyscraper."

Another shiver, this one decidedly less pleasant. Perhaps-- a premonition. Nothing good could come of such purity and power falling into Axel's sphere of influence. He kept his voice calm as he pressed, "What for?"

"I don't know." XIII sounded disinterested. "It's not the first time he's brought me out there. I think he likes taking me on tours of the worlds he knows."

No, nothing good. That was far too innocent to be taken at face value. _Touring, testing, exposing... He is finding XIII's boundaries and expanding them._

Tearing down that untouchable veneer?

The world turned a livid red, as surely as if the bastard bent over XIII's shoulder and spikes of crimson hid him from view.

He hated venting his concerns to the Superior, not when he had no proof -- he had been told quite clearly that the Superior had no patience for petty personal feuds, and he wanted to hear nothing that was not actionable. But he needed another opinion, needed someone with clearer sight.

Someone who competed with the bastard on the same level, playing the same games.

"It doesn't surprise me," Zexion said, shrugging a little, although his features were thoughtful. "Honestly, Saix, I think it would be far more suspicious if Axel _didn't_ display interest in branding his own influence on our keyblade master."

"But surely we must _do_ something about it," Saix insisted, barely keeping himself from snarling.

Zexion tapped his lower lip, and turned to look back at Lexaeus. The tall man watched with an intent gaze, but he shook his head a little, not saying anything. Still, Zexion turned back, observing, "You're not wrong. It's dangerous. But there's no point in making an ordeal of it now. In less than 48 hours Axel will be at Castle Oblivion with us-- Far from you, far from XIII. Even Axel can't manipulate what he can't touch."

He knew it sounded obsessive even as he said it, but he said, "I wouldn't be so sure."

"We will keep an eye on him," Zexion said, a little irritable, tossing his hair back. "I hope you don't doubt our devotion to the cause, or our _ability._"

Saix muttered a disclaimer, standing and getting ready to leave. Lexaeus stood in the same gesture, and Saix lingered a moment, curious to know what had moved the withdrawn Nobody.

Lexaeus observed, "You should take this time when he is gone, and think about why you came here."

"What?" Saix snapped, more reflex than genuine anger.

Zexion's eyes narrowed, but Lexaeus did not so much as blink. "Something brought you here. Some desire. Think on it. Until you understand, you will be nothing but unstable."

Thinking was difficult, though, after that; he was furious, frustrated and tense. He knew, somehow he knew, he could see it as clearly as the reflection of the moon in water. Axel would find a way. He would interfere with XIII, disrupt him, steer him from the high and glorious road that he traveled. He would do it and laugh at them when they could never reach completion.

He could _break_ XIII, break him down into his component pieces, even if such was not his intention. His plots and plans would touch on Roxas as surely as they touched everyone else. And then the predator who ran beside Saix would be gone.

The only solution, then, was to play the same game. To seek out Roxas, to show him consideration and favor, to win him over until he would trust Saix over the bastard; to take advantage of Axel's absence to ensure that the hair that hid Roxas from view was blue and not red...

It wasn't until he realized what he was thinking that he understood. His footsteps slowed and stopped.

How unlike him, how unusual. How unsettling.

Saix went to Havoc's Divide and approached the vast glass windows, stepping into the moonlight and feeling its golden stillness entering into his heart. He pressed his hands to the glass and thought of water, the reflection of vast glory. If it were not such a personal matter, of such delicacy, he would have sought IX's assistance, but every part of him denied inviting him to see this.

"Illuminate the seeker of knowledge," he murmured. "What is that boy meant to represent?"

Perhaps, if he had a heart, he would already know. Perhaps, if he were not so selfish, he wouldn't need to ask. The image of the water in his mind remained motionless, revealing nothing, no whisper of moonlit wisdom. No answers for the seeker.

In the absence of divine inspiration, Saix would turn to the one who is closest to it -- he will trust in Xemnas, in the Superior, whom he has obeyed and revered all this long time. XIII is the key that will open the way to Kingdom Hearts.

To be protected. To be nurtured.

Certainly not to be touched.


End file.
